First Day in the Bay

Just returned from visiting D's family in Napa. We left early Friday morning. Our first foodie stop was in Oakland for Bakesale Betty. We tried one fried chicken sandwich, one slushie lemonade and one strawberry shortcake. Well, 2000+ Yelp fans were not wrong! Our plan was to eat lunch in two parts, but this satisfied all of us until dinner (we did have Jamba Juice later, though).

As expected, the line was out the door, down the block, but the wait didn't seem too bad. Maybe because I was being entertained by listening to the two guys behind me that struck up a conversation about the merits of using 00 flour for homemade pizza dough v. Trader Joe's pre-made dough and thinking, "only in the Bay Area". Plus, the people watching was pretty interesting. It's fun to see how people express themselves through their clothing. It gets kind of boring in Orange County. Back to the food, the slaw on the sandwich was too spicy for k and n since it had a slight jalapeno kick. The lemonade was quite tart, which I like, and the shortcake was quite large, but a little on the dry side for my taste.

We then drove on to Berkeley. The last time we had been there was three years ago, so this was n's first time. We realized that Telegraph/Sproul Plaza is not too stroller-friendly when school is in session! D bought his requisite 2010 Cal football t-shirt, because apparently he doesn't have enough.

We stopped to watch the Women's a capella group (can't remember what their group is called).


Took a picture by the bear statue:


Three years ago:


We walked around campus looking for new construction, but didn't see anything too different (later on we saw construction at the law school and West side of campus when we were driving around). However, I was struck by how much these trees have grown since we were there over ten years ago. They used to trim them so much every year and they were so bare and gnarly. Look at them now:


D is most excited by the renovation of Memorial Stadium, which is in progress.

There's fencing all around, but we turned in just to take a quick look. Here's hoping for a good season so D can wear his new shirt with pride.

We made it to Grandpa and Grandma's house by around 3 p.m. and had dinner at their home. n is still difficult to travel with. k had a couple of short meltdowns, but n just doesn't like being in the carseat and does not get tired of letting us know!